Meredith Attwell Baker Takes Top CTIA Post

CTIA's President and CEO Steve Largent is handing over the reins to former FCC commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker.

Baker, who worked at CTIA early in her carreer, will take over for Largent, who announced [1]his retirement back in October.

Baker said she was "thrilled to have this opportunity" and it would give her a chance to put to use her experience in both the private and public sectors.

“I plan to bring new ideas and new initiatives to the association that will take it from good to grea," Baker said in a statement. "We will recruit and keep the best and brightest experts in spectrum and wireless communications. CTIA must be the ‘go to’ organization on wireless issues for both industry and government.”

Baker said she plans to work with commercial and government users to produce a five-year plan for the future of spectrum usage, while also beginning to regularly assess how efficiently spectrum is being used.

Dan Mead, chairman of CTIA and CEO of Verizon Wireless, called Baker the "perfect fit" to lead CTIA, saying she was widely respected by both sides of the political aisle.

Baker joins CTIA after serving for more than two years as senior vice president of government affairs for Comcast-NBCUniversal in Washington, D.C. Before that, as a nominee of President Obama, she was an FCC commissioner from 2009-2011.